September 2025 Exhibit
We are excited to cap off a busy summer season with the fifth solo exhibition by Darren Orange at Imogen, opening Saturday during Astoria’s Artwalk. He brings his latest series of dynamic and explosive oil paintings, titled Prismatic Pareidolia. Within the series, Orange continues with his bold and energetic style, employing movement synonymous with dance and filling our South Gallery space with powerful color and energy. Darren will be at the gallery during Astoria’s artwalk, 5 – 8 pm and available to answer questions about his work. The exhibition will be on view through October 6th.
Darren Orange, known far and wide for his emotive oil paintings, continues with his use of abstraction within this latest series to communicate his ideas and vision. His process always intertwined with finished composition demands the viewer to take note and participate in the echo left behind from its creation. Utilizing his past work as a springboard he without hesitation jumps head on into pure expression with dramatic color bursts, jolting all to full attention while beckoning for playful and joyous interaction.
Within this provocative exhibition, he pushes the unseen boundaries of mark making as expression. About this series he states: “My approach over the last 25 years is made by free association of intuitive mark making, or automatism and simultaneously representational abstraction. A game of aesthetic chess for both practices. I stretch further from the literal reference and deeper into abstraction. I carve out composition in an investigation of interscape. Some recognizable form may begin to become obvious and as the dance continues it may be worked into completion or destroyed in the event. I work in large blocks of time, often months without interruption on two-dozen or more surfaces at a time. This allows me to think quickly on my feet and make bold committed moves without fear of trying to preserve the “precious painting” or series of successful marks. I free up the canvas to explore risk taking and exploration of new possibilities.”
Through his painting, Orange moves beyond preconceived perception and takes a daring leap into the afterglow of sheer upbeat spontaneity, inviting all to come along for the ride. The shedding of past is apparent while looking directly to the unknown with exuberance and fearlessness. Within this series he brings strong and definite form into his composition, and as the show title, Prismatic Pareidolia references, visual suggestion of content. The departure is evident with the inclusion of paintings that tip into the realm of representational. Through splashes of color, forms come together to take us for that last walk through the garden, enjoying the final blooms while pollinators are busy gathering the last bit of pollen.
Orange’s work has been widely exhibited, reaching all four corners of the United States, including New York, Atlanta, Santa Fe, Portland as well as the Coos Bay Art Museum, Oregon. He has been presented awards from the Oregon Arts Commission, the Ford Family Foundation, and the Ucross Foundation Residency Fellowship. His work has been selected for exhibitions by Michael Klein of the Microsoft Collection, Nat Trottman of the Guggenheim, Bonnie Laing Malcomson formerly with the Portland Art Museum, Margaret Bullock of the Tacoma Art Museum, and many others. Academic institutions such as Portland State University, Peninsula College, Mt Hood Community College, Lower Columbia College, Oregon Coast Council for the Arts have all awarded him with solo exhibitions. He was also selected by the Oregon Arts Commission for the Art in The Governor’s Office program, a prestigious recognition as an Oregon artist. His work can be found in private, public, and corporate collections around the world.
We are excited to cap off a busy summer season with the fifth solo exhibition by Darren Orange at Imogen, opening Saturday during Astoria’s Artwalk. He brings his latest series of dynamic and explosive oil paintings, titled Prismatic Pareidolia. Within the series, Orange continues with his bold and energetic style, employing movement synonymous with dance and filling our South Gallery space with powerful color and energy. Darren will be at the gallery during Astoria’s artwalk, 5 – 8 pm and available to answer questions about his work. The exhibition will be on view through October 6th.
Darren Orange, known far and wide for his emotive oil paintings, continues with his use of abstraction within this latest series to communicate his ideas and vision. His process always intertwined with finished composition demands the viewer to take note and participate in the echo left behind from its creation. Utilizing his past work as a springboard he without hesitation jumps head on into pure expression with dramatic color bursts, jolting all to full attention while beckoning for playful and joyous interaction.
Within this provocative exhibition, he pushes the unseen boundaries of mark making as expression. About this series he states: “My approach over the last 25 years is made by free association of intuitive mark making, or automatism and simultaneously representational abstraction. A game of aesthetic chess for both practices. I stretch further from the literal reference and deeper into abstraction. I carve out composition in an investigation of interscape. Some recognizable form may begin to become obvious and as the dance continues it may be worked into completion or destroyed in the event. I work in large blocks of time, often months without interruption on two-dozen or more surfaces at a time. This allows me to think quickly on my feet and make bold committed moves without fear of trying to preserve the “precious painting” or series of successful marks. I free up the canvas to explore risk taking and exploration of new possibilities.”
Through his painting, Orange moves beyond preconceived perception and takes a daring leap into the afterglow of sheer upbeat spontaneity, inviting all to come along for the ride. The shedding of past is apparent while looking directly to the unknown with exuberance and fearlessness. Within this series he brings strong and definite form into his composition, and as the show title, Prismatic Pareidolia references, visual suggestion of content. The departure is evident with the inclusion of paintings that tip into the realm of representational. Through splashes of color, forms come together to take us for that last walk through the garden, enjoying the final blooms while pollinators are busy gathering the last bit of pollen.
Orange’s work has been widely exhibited, reaching all four corners of the United States, including New York, Atlanta, Santa Fe, Portland as well as the Coos Bay Art Museum, Oregon. He has been presented awards from the Oregon Arts Commission, the Ford Family Foundation, and the Ucross Foundation Residency Fellowship. His work has been selected for exhibitions by Michael Klein of the Microsoft Collection, Nat Trottman of the Guggenheim, Bonnie Laing Malcomson formerly with the Portland Art Museum, Margaret Bullock of the Tacoma Art Museum, and many others. Academic institutions such as Portland State University, Peninsula College, Mt Hood Community College, Lower Columbia College, Oregon Coast Council for the Arts have all awarded him with solo exhibitions. He was also selected by the Oregon Arts Commission for the Art in The Governor’s Office program, a prestigious recognition as an Oregon artist. His work can be found in private, public, and corporate collections around the world.
August 2025 Exhibit
INEXTINGUISHABLE
M.J. Anderson
We are excited to welcome back the inimitable M.J. Anderson for her fourth solo exhibition, INEXTINGUISHABLE, at Imogen and opening in conjunction with Astoria Artwalk, Saturday, August 9th. Known as a dynamic powerhouse, Anderson has been sculpting marble for over 40 years, working from two studios, one here on the North Coast of Oregon (Nehalem) and the other in Carrara, Italy near the quarries where she quite often sources her marble. For this series, she focuses on the metaphor of flame. Her work, through her own voice and experience, brings the storyline of history, echoing the past, present and future. This special exhibition is part memoir, part rallying-cry, and part anthropology of the human soul. M.J. will be present and available to answer questions about her work and career from 5 – 8 pm during the artwalk. The exhibition will remain on view through September 8.
M.J. Anderson has cultivated a long and fascinating career, balancing a professional life that connects the Mediterranean to the Pacific Northwest. Her work exudes the romance and history of the Mediterranean while offering the allure and mystery of the rugged Pacific Northwest. Regarded as one of the Northwest’s most important sculptors, for this exhibition she brings marble of all types, focusing on the iconic importance of fire through history, including several of her coveted torsos, emulating mankind’s connection to flame. Beyond the monumental scope of this exhibition, it is a powerful example of color, texture, form and metaphor.
Her epic work in stone is a testimony to an ancient process of geological wonder, carefully coaxed into sublime form, by the hand and eye of the artist. Each piece brought painstakingly to a sensual tactile surface, through countless hours of carving and polishing, still holding the eons of history from origin. Her process from procuring her medium to finished work is not a simple one. Once stone has been selected from the quarry, work begins in her Italian studio, roughing out pieces to begin the process of revealing the beauty of form within, prior to being shipped to her studio in Nehalem where the real work begins.
About this powerful series she states: “Flames bring an inexhaustible fountain of metaphor and historical reference to how we evolve as a species. From age-old gatherings around the warmth of fire, flames have been the center of our life on the planet. A few torsos in the show are inspired by Saint and brave feminist Joan of Arc (who was vilified by the same powers whom her army saved) while other abstracted flame forms are symbolic of creative energies and passions. I have created a series of sculpture which reference a final test, as Dante (Purgatorio) must penetrate the wall of flames of purification to arrive in Seventh Heaven. My work is about the metaphoric flame which burns in each of us ---and the responsibility for each of us to keep that flame alive.”
In the essay, “The Scars that Give a Stone its Soul: M.J. Anderson ‘s Ineffable Beauties” by art critic, curator and author, Richard Speer, he writes:
“Inhabiting a physical and psychological space midway between the Mediterranean Sea and Pacific Ocean—the conceit undergirding her has inevitably imparted an ambidexterity to Anderson’s aesthetic orientation. She floats across paradigms. Although attuned to the figurative, biomorphic, and abstract work of 20th Century icons like Brancusi, Moore, and Noguchi, she has been more directly influenced by medieval altarpieces, Käthe Kollwitz, and Manuel Neri. These disparate influences, folded into her own lived experience, guided her to the lodestar of her own practice: a never-ceasing quest to capture the ineffable. Her finished sculptures testify to the ways in which an intuitive and restlessly inventive artist can part the veils that divide the material world from the metaphysical. The sculptures are exquisite objects d’art but also emblems, signifiers, and most enigmatically of all, presences.”
Anderson, who began her career as a textile artist always held a love of stone and all things Italian. Her first visit to Italy was in 1974 and ten years later establishing her studio in Carrara. When discussing her choice of stone as vehicle of expression she says, “Marble was once alive. Marble was made from dying coral reefs and sea life billions of years ago. It was compressed and transformed by incredible heat, then lifted up into mountains by the forces of geology…some stones have smells, so when I’m sculpting, I’m handling and smelling something that once was alive.” This sense of vitality carries over into her finished forms.
Anderson has been exhibiting her work extensively throughout the Northwest and abroad since the mid 1990’s. Her work is included to the permanent collection of the Portland Art Museum, Hallie Ford Museum, Salem, OR Ceasar’s Palace, Las Vegas and the Maroochydore Bushland Botanic Gardens & Noosa Botanic Gardens, QLD, Australia. She has been the recipient of a Pollack-Krasner Foundation Grant, a two-month Fellowship Award in Civita di Bagnoregio, Italy through the Northwest Institute of Architecture & Urban Studies in Italy, the recipient of a career grant through the Oregon Arts Commission and the Ford Family Foundation. Anderson also gratefully acknowledges receiving funds from The Artist Relief fund, administered by the Oregon Arts Commission in partnership with the Oregon Community Foundation and the James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation.
INEXTINGUISHABLE
M.J. Anderson
We are excited to welcome back the inimitable M.J. Anderson for her fourth solo exhibition, INEXTINGUISHABLE, at Imogen and opening in conjunction with Astoria Artwalk, Saturday, August 9th. Known as a dynamic powerhouse, Anderson has been sculpting marble for over 40 years, working from two studios, one here on the North Coast of Oregon (Nehalem) and the other in Carrara, Italy near the quarries where she quite often sources her marble. For this series, she focuses on the metaphor of flame. Her work, through her own voice and experience, brings the storyline of history, echoing the past, present and future. This special exhibition is part memoir, part rallying-cry, and part anthropology of the human soul. M.J. will be present and available to answer questions about her work and career from 5 – 8 pm during the artwalk. The exhibition will remain on view through September 8.
M.J. Anderson has cultivated a long and fascinating career, balancing a professional life that connects the Mediterranean to the Pacific Northwest. Her work exudes the romance and history of the Mediterranean while offering the allure and mystery of the rugged Pacific Northwest. Regarded as one of the Northwest’s most important sculptors, for this exhibition she brings marble of all types, focusing on the iconic importance of fire through history, including several of her coveted torsos, emulating mankind’s connection to flame. Beyond the monumental scope of this exhibition, it is a powerful example of color, texture, form and metaphor.
Her epic work in stone is a testimony to an ancient process of geological wonder, carefully coaxed into sublime form, by the hand and eye of the artist. Each piece brought painstakingly to a sensual tactile surface, through countless hours of carving and polishing, still holding the eons of history from origin. Her process from procuring her medium to finished work is not a simple one. Once stone has been selected from the quarry, work begins in her Italian studio, roughing out pieces to begin the process of revealing the beauty of form within, prior to being shipped to her studio in Nehalem where the real work begins.
About this powerful series she states: “Flames bring an inexhaustible fountain of metaphor and historical reference to how we evolve as a species. From age-old gatherings around the warmth of fire, flames have been the center of our life on the planet. A few torsos in the show are inspired by Saint and brave feminist Joan of Arc (who was vilified by the same powers whom her army saved) while other abstracted flame forms are symbolic of creative energies and passions. I have created a series of sculpture which reference a final test, as Dante (Purgatorio) must penetrate the wall of flames of purification to arrive in Seventh Heaven. My work is about the metaphoric flame which burns in each of us ---and the responsibility for each of us to keep that flame alive.”
In the essay, “The Scars that Give a Stone its Soul: M.J. Anderson ‘s Ineffable Beauties” by art critic, curator and author, Richard Speer, he writes:
“Inhabiting a physical and psychological space midway between the Mediterranean Sea and Pacific Ocean—the conceit undergirding her has inevitably imparted an ambidexterity to Anderson’s aesthetic orientation. She floats across paradigms. Although attuned to the figurative, biomorphic, and abstract work of 20th Century icons like Brancusi, Moore, and Noguchi, she has been more directly influenced by medieval altarpieces, Käthe Kollwitz, and Manuel Neri. These disparate influences, folded into her own lived experience, guided her to the lodestar of her own practice: a never-ceasing quest to capture the ineffable. Her finished sculptures testify to the ways in which an intuitive and restlessly inventive artist can part the veils that divide the material world from the metaphysical. The sculptures are exquisite objects d’art but also emblems, signifiers, and most enigmatically of all, presences.”
Anderson, who began her career as a textile artist always held a love of stone and all things Italian. Her first visit to Italy was in 1974 and ten years later establishing her studio in Carrara. When discussing her choice of stone as vehicle of expression she says, “Marble was once alive. Marble was made from dying coral reefs and sea life billions of years ago. It was compressed and transformed by incredible heat, then lifted up into mountains by the forces of geology…some stones have smells, so when I’m sculpting, I’m handling and smelling something that once was alive.” This sense of vitality carries over into her finished forms.
Anderson has been exhibiting her work extensively throughout the Northwest and abroad since the mid 1990’s. Her work is included to the permanent collection of the Portland Art Museum, Hallie Ford Museum, Salem, OR Ceasar’s Palace, Las Vegas and the Maroochydore Bushland Botanic Gardens & Noosa Botanic Gardens, QLD, Australia. She has been the recipient of a Pollack-Krasner Foundation Grant, a two-month Fellowship Award in Civita di Bagnoregio, Italy through the Northwest Institute of Architecture & Urban Studies in Italy, the recipient of a career grant through the Oregon Arts Commission and the Ford Family Foundation. Anderson also gratefully acknowledges receiving funds from The Artist Relief fund, administered by the Oregon Arts Commission in partnership with the Oregon Community Foundation and the James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation.
July 2025 Exhibit
what is earth but a home
New Paintings by Bethany Rowland
For July we are proud to be presenting a new series of paintings by Bethany Rowland who returns to Imogen Gallery for her seventh solo exhibition, “what is earth but a home.” Known for her soulful paintings, she once again delivers a powerful collection utilizing landscape, birds of prey and other wildlife to depict and remind all, the concept and importance of home on a global level. The exhibition opens during Astoria’s Second Saturday Artwalk, Saturday July 12 from noon – 8 pm. Rowland will be at the gallery from 5 - 8 pm that evening and available to answer questions about her work. The exhibition will remain on view through August 4.
Since childhood, Rowland has looked to the natural world to find order. Her existential take on the world forges a path to understanding through her emotive paintings, etched in nuance of contemplation. Placing focus on the wild, she gives voice to landscape and its inhabitants, spending countless hours of observation studying dramatic shifts of light, echoing through the walls of land carved out eons ago by geological sculpting. Her portraiture of raptors, equally compelling, act as totems to a profound sense of spirituality, offering a prayer of hope for all inhabitants to this place called home.
Rowland, who deems land and its inhabitants as spiritual guides, is a practiced and keen observer of nature. Once back in the studio, she infuses her dreamlike impressions to surface, allowing wildlife to emerge from background, coming forward as if to offer itself as shaman, providing comfort and strength. With subtle nuance of brush stroke, she crafts composition lending to the mysticism of landscape and animals she honors. Within this series, Rowland allows herself to go deeper into identity of what “home” is, defining space by intuition of what cannot be held, only felt. About this series she writes with honesty about her intuitive process and the concept of “home.” She states, “In creating a painting, I am searching for some kind of truth or truths to emerge in the interplay of feeling, remembering, witnessing, and paying attention. Whether a painting becomes a Red-Tail’s gaze or an imagined dream life of a mountain, the process involves conscious consideration as well as openness to the unbidden. I may not recognize what emerges – whether it is a painting gone astray or the beginning of something I didn’t know I knew or could express, the outcome is an opportunity to feel connected. My hope is that, in the midst of it all, we find openings with our senses and our hearts to revere what is our shared home.”
Some art enthusiasts may notice a subtle shift within this series, what is earth but a home. Bethany seems to carefully embrace the power of surrounding atmospheric quality. Much like the great painter J.M.W. Turner, she brings motion to life through unseen current and light quality, lending to the period of the romanticism movement of the late 18th century. The historic feel and quality of this series is delicately balanced with the drama of contemporary painting.
Rowland, who has been painting for over 25 years handles her medium, style and subject matter with unabashed confidence, carefully cultivating imagery that is a beautiful and evocative marriage of representation and abstraction. Combining quiet corners of complex layers of sheer color with definitive mark and gesture, she conveys emotion, a hint of melancholy, comfort, and acceptance within each composition. She readily cites such artists as Phil Sylvester of The Drawing Studio in Portland, OR as well as others including Andrea Schwartz-Feit, William Park and Royal Nebeker for giving her the courage to trust her own intuition in her practice. She understands form and allows herself freedom to explore the nuance of posture through the discipline of painting the human figure. Her figurative work has been juried into Clatsop Community College’s annual Au Naturel: The Nude in the 21st Century, for multiple exhibitions throughout its history. Her work is regularly included in the annual Sitka Art Invitational as well as the juried annual Cascade Aids Project art auction.
what is earth but a home
New Paintings by Bethany Rowland
For July we are proud to be presenting a new series of paintings by Bethany Rowland who returns to Imogen Gallery for her seventh solo exhibition, “what is earth but a home.” Known for her soulful paintings, she once again delivers a powerful collection utilizing landscape, birds of prey and other wildlife to depict and remind all, the concept and importance of home on a global level. The exhibition opens during Astoria’s Second Saturday Artwalk, Saturday July 12 from noon – 8 pm. Rowland will be at the gallery from 5 - 8 pm that evening and available to answer questions about her work. The exhibition will remain on view through August 4.
Since childhood, Rowland has looked to the natural world to find order. Her existential take on the world forges a path to understanding through her emotive paintings, etched in nuance of contemplation. Placing focus on the wild, she gives voice to landscape and its inhabitants, spending countless hours of observation studying dramatic shifts of light, echoing through the walls of land carved out eons ago by geological sculpting. Her portraiture of raptors, equally compelling, act as totems to a profound sense of spirituality, offering a prayer of hope for all inhabitants to this place called home.
Rowland, who deems land and its inhabitants as spiritual guides, is a practiced and keen observer of nature. Once back in the studio, she infuses her dreamlike impressions to surface, allowing wildlife to emerge from background, coming forward as if to offer itself as shaman, providing comfort and strength. With subtle nuance of brush stroke, she crafts composition lending to the mysticism of landscape and animals she honors. Within this series, Rowland allows herself to go deeper into identity of what “home” is, defining space by intuition of what cannot be held, only felt. About this series she writes with honesty about her intuitive process and the concept of “home.” She states, “In creating a painting, I am searching for some kind of truth or truths to emerge in the interplay of feeling, remembering, witnessing, and paying attention. Whether a painting becomes a Red-Tail’s gaze or an imagined dream life of a mountain, the process involves conscious consideration as well as openness to the unbidden. I may not recognize what emerges – whether it is a painting gone astray or the beginning of something I didn’t know I knew or could express, the outcome is an opportunity to feel connected. My hope is that, in the midst of it all, we find openings with our senses and our hearts to revere what is our shared home.”
Some art enthusiasts may notice a subtle shift within this series, what is earth but a home. Bethany seems to carefully embrace the power of surrounding atmospheric quality. Much like the great painter J.M.W. Turner, she brings motion to life through unseen current and light quality, lending to the period of the romanticism movement of the late 18th century. The historic feel and quality of this series is delicately balanced with the drama of contemporary painting.
Rowland, who has been painting for over 25 years handles her medium, style and subject matter with unabashed confidence, carefully cultivating imagery that is a beautiful and evocative marriage of representation and abstraction. Combining quiet corners of complex layers of sheer color with definitive mark and gesture, she conveys emotion, a hint of melancholy, comfort, and acceptance within each composition. She readily cites such artists as Phil Sylvester of The Drawing Studio in Portland, OR as well as others including Andrea Schwartz-Feit, William Park and Royal Nebeker for giving her the courage to trust her own intuition in her practice. She understands form and allows herself freedom to explore the nuance of posture through the discipline of painting the human figure. Her figurative work has been juried into Clatsop Community College’s annual Au Naturel: The Nude in the 21st Century, for multiple exhibitions throughout its history. Her work is regularly included in the annual Sitka Art Invitational as well as the juried annual Cascade Aids Project art auction.
June 2025 Exhibit
Stan Peterson
Stories Worth Remembering
We are thrilled to welcome Stan Peterson back for his fourth solo exhibition at Imogen. He brings a new series of his delightful carved and painted wood sculpture and paintings. Within this new collection, Stories Worth Remembering, Peterson takes us along for a journey through storytelling. Join us for ArtWalk June 14, 5 – 8 pm and have a chat with Stan, he will have many remarkable stories to share about his work and experiences. The exhibition will be on display through July 7.
As an artist who delights in storytelling, Peterson has created yet another fantastical body of work still based on the figurative, whether it be a hybrid creature of his brilliant imagination or a more literal depiction of birds, dogs, horses or human figure, each piece always lends to story. For this series, Peterson, who appreciates a good tale as much as he does telling one, considers the symbiotic relationships between human and animal kind, through his upbeat and whimsical wood sculpture and paintings that participate in the storytelling process.
Within his woodcarving and painting process, he narrates stories told to him as well as from his own experiences, creating compelling imagery through thoughtful use of form and color. His love of nature and its creatures become the focal point of his work, with depictions of a shared sense of compassion and kindness between man and animal. This series, intended as a thoughtful look at those unique relationships that do not rely on verbal dialogue, instead a simple appreciation for the other conveyed by connection though gaze, and/or an extended hand of trust. These fascinating bonds convey peace, understanding and appreciation for the other. Simply said, Peterson’s work is a collection of life stories, observations, and honoring acts of kindness.
When asked about this series and his process, he refers to his “recipe” for creating a body of work for an exhibition. Here’s how that goes, beginning with the gathering of all things necessary within his step-by-step process. “Ingredients: Basswood Carving tools Canvas Acrylic paints. Take a lot of walks, preferably in open spaces (look for figures and animals from a distance). Take note of the light (look for sky magic)! Pay casual attention to all around you. Use your peripheral vision. Remember those moments where you feel very Alive. Sit down in the evening and sketch a memory. Repeat all of the above. Let some time go by… When a memory or a sketch keeps nudging, go to the studio. Draw on planks of basswood and saw out shapes on the bandsaw. Begin hand carving at the bench by a window. Rest your eyes by looking at the garden, some goldfinches splashing in the birdbath. Keep carving. Glance at the unfinished painting on the easel. Keep carving. Mix some paint and add a layer of color to the painting. Wonder where the hours went. Keep carving. Repeat all of the above. Two years later serve up a show of carved wood sculptures and paintings.
Peterson, a self-taught artist has been exhibiting his narrative and figurative sculpture since the 1980’s and has long utilized animal form as a vehicle to explore human interaction and connection. As a retired postal carrier, walking is something he has always enjoyed, whether it be the city streets or remote beaches; long sidewalks give way to stretches of beach where he can observe both domestic and wild animals and where his source of inspiration begins. These elements give him the time and space for introspection of daily experience and random encounters that quite often become center stage in his finished work.
Peterson has enjoyed a remarkable career as an artist, exhibiting his work from the west coast to as far away as New York and Paris with collectors in all points in between. He has been a featured artist on the much-loved OPB Art Beat program and written about in PDX Magazine. He has enjoyed several artist’s residencies over the years including an award of an individual artist’s grant from the William T. Colville Foundation to travel to Bali for “Arts in Bali” where he worked with a traditional Balinese mask carver. He has also enjoyed two residencies at the famed Ghost Ranch in Taos, New Mexico.
Stan Peterson
Stories Worth Remembering
We are thrilled to welcome Stan Peterson back for his fourth solo exhibition at Imogen. He brings a new series of his delightful carved and painted wood sculpture and paintings. Within this new collection, Stories Worth Remembering, Peterson takes us along for a journey through storytelling. Join us for ArtWalk June 14, 5 – 8 pm and have a chat with Stan, he will have many remarkable stories to share about his work and experiences. The exhibition will be on display through July 7.
As an artist who delights in storytelling, Peterson has created yet another fantastical body of work still based on the figurative, whether it be a hybrid creature of his brilliant imagination or a more literal depiction of birds, dogs, horses or human figure, each piece always lends to story. For this series, Peterson, who appreciates a good tale as much as he does telling one, considers the symbiotic relationships between human and animal kind, through his upbeat and whimsical wood sculpture and paintings that participate in the storytelling process.
Within his woodcarving and painting process, he narrates stories told to him as well as from his own experiences, creating compelling imagery through thoughtful use of form and color. His love of nature and its creatures become the focal point of his work, with depictions of a shared sense of compassion and kindness between man and animal. This series, intended as a thoughtful look at those unique relationships that do not rely on verbal dialogue, instead a simple appreciation for the other conveyed by connection though gaze, and/or an extended hand of trust. These fascinating bonds convey peace, understanding and appreciation for the other. Simply said, Peterson’s work is a collection of life stories, observations, and honoring acts of kindness.
When asked about this series and his process, he refers to his “recipe” for creating a body of work for an exhibition. Here’s how that goes, beginning with the gathering of all things necessary within his step-by-step process. “Ingredients: Basswood Carving tools Canvas Acrylic paints. Take a lot of walks, preferably in open spaces (look for figures and animals from a distance). Take note of the light (look for sky magic)! Pay casual attention to all around you. Use your peripheral vision. Remember those moments where you feel very Alive. Sit down in the evening and sketch a memory. Repeat all of the above. Let some time go by… When a memory or a sketch keeps nudging, go to the studio. Draw on planks of basswood and saw out shapes on the bandsaw. Begin hand carving at the bench by a window. Rest your eyes by looking at the garden, some goldfinches splashing in the birdbath. Keep carving. Glance at the unfinished painting on the easel. Keep carving. Mix some paint and add a layer of color to the painting. Wonder where the hours went. Keep carving. Repeat all of the above. Two years later serve up a show of carved wood sculptures and paintings.
Peterson, a self-taught artist has been exhibiting his narrative and figurative sculpture since the 1980’s and has long utilized animal form as a vehicle to explore human interaction and connection. As a retired postal carrier, walking is something he has always enjoyed, whether it be the city streets or remote beaches; long sidewalks give way to stretches of beach where he can observe both domestic and wild animals and where his source of inspiration begins. These elements give him the time and space for introspection of daily experience and random encounters that quite often become center stage in his finished work.
Peterson has enjoyed a remarkable career as an artist, exhibiting his work from the west coast to as far away as New York and Paris with collectors in all points in between. He has been a featured artist on the much-loved OPB Art Beat program and written about in PDX Magazine. He has enjoyed several artist’s residencies over the years including an award of an individual artist’s grant from the William T. Colville Foundation to travel to Bali for “Arts in Bali” where he worked with a traditional Balinese mask carver. He has also enjoyed two residencies at the famed Ghost Ranch in Taos, New Mexico.
May 2025 Exhibit
Imogen Gallery
Mark Andres The Garden of Love
Deb Stoner Who’s Going to Backup Your Digital Life?
May 10 – June 5
We are honored to present two exquisite exhibitions bringing the beauty of the garden, by two iconic Portland artists. In our South Gallery space, we welcome Mark Andres with a new series of floral paintings, The Garden of Love. In our front gallery we are honored to present a fourth solo exhibition for photographer Deb Stoner. She brings Who’s Going to Backup Your Digital Life?, an elegant series of black and white photographic still life prints. Both shows open during Astoria’s Artwalk, Saturday, May 10th, 12 – 8 pm. Mark Andres and Deb Stoner will both be at the gallery during artwalk, from 5 – 8 pm, that day, please stop by and say hello. The exhibitions will remain on view through June 9th.
In our South Gallery, we are proud to be hosting a powerful solo exhibition for the highly respected painter Mark Andres. Known for his plein aire paintings of both Portland and Astoria, the two cities he knows and loves, Andres shifts his focus to studio work, creating a rich series of still life paintings. The nuance of a simple bouquet of flowers can take on the expression of many things. Andres brings imagery, packed with stunning use of color and composition exploring the essence of sentiment.
Andres’ work, both as a painter and a film maker, provide a visual richness and intimacy through shared memory and imprint of emotive qualities. For Andres, this series dedicated to flowers is about paying homage to a genre that in contemporary times of fast paced clicks and scrolling, seems to have been overlooked. Vases as well-crafted as the blossoms they hold, express the tenderness of love, hope, sorrow and even forgiveness.
About these paintings he provides a list of 12 reasons why he paints flowers. From his list he narrates his approach, “Reason #2: Flowers resist being meaning. They can be told to stand for chastity, charity, passion, disdain, folly, flattery, friendship or forbearance, but flowers shake off all these meanings as easily as Aphrodite shaking off water, emerging naked from the Aegean.” And “Reason #12: Mother planted the seeds of my art education when I was a child, but her seeds did not flower until I had reached 65 when I began this series of paintings. After stupidly dismissing floral painting as a genre, I received my comeuppance late in life in the form of happiness. Happiness, just like a flower, blooms only for a short time, but its beauty leaves a big impression behind, promising the possibility of a return. Mother, like her lilac cuttings, played the long game.”
Andres who has been painting for some 40 years has enjoyed a career as both artist and educator. He has exhibited his work extensively on both the east and west coasts, with his work included to the permanent collections of the Portland Art Museum, the Hallie Ford Museum, the Mary Hill Museum as well as being included to many private and corporate collections.
We are also excited to welcome back Deb Stoner who brings a new series of still life black and white photographs titled Who’s Going to Backup Your Digital Life?. This series, unique to Stoner who is known for her carefully constructed botanical still life compositions, reminiscent of the great Dutch master’s paintings, is a departure. She found herself thinking about the lost work of the early great photographers, their glass negatives, and how that related to her own work. This led her to begin work on printing her early film work from some 40 plus years ago. She carefully selected the negatives and slides she felt were the most important with great thought given to the beauty of the “negative” itself. This series is a culmination of that project.
About this series she states: “I thought about the utter confusion of learning how to read a negative when I first started printing black and white photographs over forty years ago. And then one day, I was able to “see” the negative without effort, and I thought it was beautiful. So it came to be that this work, created by finding good compositions within my much larger still life photographs, became a way for me to explore the literal positive and negative images and the shapes created by combining the opposite images.”
Deb Stoner holds an MFA in Applied Design from SDSU, a BS in Geology from UC Davis, and a decades long teaching career at the former Oregon College of Art and Craft. She has been a guest lecturer at the Portland Art Museum, and had her work selected from an international call for artists in 2019 to do a building wrap of the Palos Verdes Art Center in Los Angeles. Her botanical work enshrined the Center throughout 2020. Stoner has juried purchases in the permanent public art collections at University of Oregon, OHSU, PCC, and the Portland International Airport, and is the recipient of numerous grants and residencies while selling her work to enthusiastic collectors around the world.
Imogen Gallery
Mark Andres The Garden of Love
Deb Stoner Who’s Going to Backup Your Digital Life?
May 10 – June 5
We are honored to present two exquisite exhibitions bringing the beauty of the garden, by two iconic Portland artists. In our South Gallery space, we welcome Mark Andres with a new series of floral paintings, The Garden of Love. In our front gallery we are honored to present a fourth solo exhibition for photographer Deb Stoner. She brings Who’s Going to Backup Your Digital Life?, an elegant series of black and white photographic still life prints. Both shows open during Astoria’s Artwalk, Saturday, May 10th, 12 – 8 pm. Mark Andres and Deb Stoner will both be at the gallery during artwalk, from 5 – 8 pm, that day, please stop by and say hello. The exhibitions will remain on view through June 9th.
In our South Gallery, we are proud to be hosting a powerful solo exhibition for the highly respected painter Mark Andres. Known for his plein aire paintings of both Portland and Astoria, the two cities he knows and loves, Andres shifts his focus to studio work, creating a rich series of still life paintings. The nuance of a simple bouquet of flowers can take on the expression of many things. Andres brings imagery, packed with stunning use of color and composition exploring the essence of sentiment.
Andres’ work, both as a painter and a film maker, provide a visual richness and intimacy through shared memory and imprint of emotive qualities. For Andres, this series dedicated to flowers is about paying homage to a genre that in contemporary times of fast paced clicks and scrolling, seems to have been overlooked. Vases as well-crafted as the blossoms they hold, express the tenderness of love, hope, sorrow and even forgiveness.
About these paintings he provides a list of 12 reasons why he paints flowers. From his list he narrates his approach, “Reason #2: Flowers resist being meaning. They can be told to stand for chastity, charity, passion, disdain, folly, flattery, friendship or forbearance, but flowers shake off all these meanings as easily as Aphrodite shaking off water, emerging naked from the Aegean.” And “Reason #12: Mother planted the seeds of my art education when I was a child, but her seeds did not flower until I had reached 65 when I began this series of paintings. After stupidly dismissing floral painting as a genre, I received my comeuppance late in life in the form of happiness. Happiness, just like a flower, blooms only for a short time, but its beauty leaves a big impression behind, promising the possibility of a return. Mother, like her lilac cuttings, played the long game.”
Andres who has been painting for some 40 years has enjoyed a career as both artist and educator. He has exhibited his work extensively on both the east and west coasts, with his work included to the permanent collections of the Portland Art Museum, the Hallie Ford Museum, the Mary Hill Museum as well as being included to many private and corporate collections.
We are also excited to welcome back Deb Stoner who brings a new series of still life black and white photographs titled Who’s Going to Backup Your Digital Life?. This series, unique to Stoner who is known for her carefully constructed botanical still life compositions, reminiscent of the great Dutch master’s paintings, is a departure. She found herself thinking about the lost work of the early great photographers, their glass negatives, and how that related to her own work. This led her to begin work on printing her early film work from some 40 plus years ago. She carefully selected the negatives and slides she felt were the most important with great thought given to the beauty of the “negative” itself. This series is a culmination of that project.
About this series she states: “I thought about the utter confusion of learning how to read a negative when I first started printing black and white photographs over forty years ago. And then one day, I was able to “see” the negative without effort, and I thought it was beautiful. So it came to be that this work, created by finding good compositions within my much larger still life photographs, became a way for me to explore the literal positive and negative images and the shapes created by combining the opposite images.”
Deb Stoner holds an MFA in Applied Design from SDSU, a BS in Geology from UC Davis, and a decades long teaching career at the former Oregon College of Art and Craft. She has been a guest lecturer at the Portland Art Museum, and had her work selected from an international call for artists in 2019 to do a building wrap of the Palos Verdes Art Center in Los Angeles. Her botanical work enshrined the Center throughout 2020. Stoner has juried purchases in the permanent public art collections at University of Oregon, OHSU, PCC, and the Portland International Airport, and is the recipient of numerous grants and residencies while selling her work to enthusiastic collectors around the world.
